Pierre Mauroy

Pierre Mauroy (5 July 1928-7 June 2013) was Prime Minister of France from 22 May 1981 to 17 July 1984, succeeding Raymond Barre and preceding Laurent Fabius. He was a member of the Socialist Party of France.

Biography
Pierre Mauroy was born in Cartignies, France in 1928, and he became a teahcer during the 1950s. Lord Mayor of Lille and Deputy in the National Assembly since 1973, he belonged to the militant wing of the Socialist Party of France. As the Prime Minister appointed to carry out the policies of the newly elected President Francois Mitterrand, he abolished the death penalty, state control of the media, and restrictions on local radio transmissions. More importantly, despite the current economic recession, he introduced ane xpansionist social and economic programme, with vastly increased social benefit payments and the creation of 140,000 new jobs. Also, there proceeded a series of nationalizations according to the law of 13 February 1982. However, within months of introducing his inflationary programme, he had to backtrack and announce his first spending cuts. In 1983, health service charges were raised, and drastic foreign exchange controls of 2,000 francs per annum were introduced. Due to his government's rising unpopularity, he was replaced by Laurent Fabius.